Author's Opening Rant- Yes, I am an evil little thing! Don't you guys know? "Never trust a smiling fox!" (Ancient Japanese proverb.) I do like keeping my readers in suspense, because as everyone knows, you should always leave them wanting more! ::smirk::
And as always, before I start I have to give a HUGE thank you to all my readers and reviewers! Thank you guys so much! I'm so glad you like "Leaf Festival" and I'm happy to keep churning out chapters for you all! And I am especially happy for your kind comments and incredibly helpful suggestions! Domo arigato goizimasu!
Now then—this chapter might wind up a little short, just because I want to really set some chapters aside for the dance. As for The Uchiha boy attending the dance, and Naruto asking Hinata…surprises are fun! ::smirk smirk smirk::
Chapter 14- ExpectationAfter a week of schemes, plots, tears, fights, threats, and exhausted emotions, the day of the Leaf Festival dance had finally arrived. That night, the lanterns would be lit all across Konoha as the villagers celebrated their autumn festivities. And thankfully, the rain had finally stopped. Tsunade had smiled triumphantly as the sun peered through the clouds that morning, bragging about how she had 'shown those rain-clouds!' Most of the ninjas just smiled back and agreed, not wanting to upset her by pointing out the obvious fact that clouds did not simply appear nor disappear by a woman's anger.
All around the village, people were preparing for the massive dance that would take place near the Hokage monument that night. Banners were strung, extra lanterns were set up in windowsills, and fancy yukata were being laid out in preparation. The Gennin themselves were no exception to the frenzied last-minute details of the day.
Neji and Tenten had decided it would be intelligent to just spend the whole of the day together. Most likely, they would have anyway, so this just saved them both the time of rushing home to bathe and dress. Tenten had found a long, sweeping yukata made of pale jade fabric, and for possibly the first time in her life, her hair was down in two carefully and perfectly wound braids. Neji had dug up and old, royal blue formal outfit from his closet to dress in, though he outright refused to leave the house without his Konoha headband secured around the mark on his forehead. But for all the Hyuuga genius' grousing and feigned complaining, they were having more fun at the festival than they had had all week. The proof was in the five or six small plush animals that Tenten was clinging to. She had no idea that Neji was quite this good at festival games; although, he did loose horribly to the giddy weapons master every single time they approached a game that required some kind of skill with aiming.
That night, Hatake Kakashi mused to himself as he lazily leafed through his usual book, that night he would definitely ask Shizune to a dance. And then she would just gush all over him, about how sweet and noble he was. And, inevitably, she would fall for him. Oh yes, Kakashi had everything worked out in his mind. All that he needed to do now was work up the nerve to ask. He composed his humble request mentally as he turned the pages of Icha Icha Paradise, hoping he might somehow stumble across a phrase or an action that he would find helpful. But all he could find in the book, much to his delight, were they ways NOT to act on a date. Thought it was still very entertaining!
Nara Shikamaru had discovered the perfect plan for keeping himself in good health until tonight: Not leaving his room. The shadow shinobi had barricaded his door and held himself captive in his own bedroom, eyes anxiously staring out of his window. He figured that this way, Temari would never know about his decision, and could therefore not kill him. Likewise, Ino would not be able to nag him half to death with little suggestions about what he would wear and how he should act at the dance. This wasn't just troublesome; it was dangerous! Shikamaru even refused to entertain himself with games of Go or Shogi in fear that the sound of the game pieces clacking against the boards might somehow alert Temari to his location. And then he'd be dead. And then Ino would dig him up and kill him again for ditching out on her. He slowly lowered himself onto his stomach on his bed and pulled the sheets up over his head to hide even better. Man…it would be a miracle if he made it out of this whole ordeal without a few emotional and physical scars. So troublesome…
Outside on the festival grounds, Kiba found himself getting quite a run around. With less than a few hours to ask Hinata to the dance, he was trying every sneaky thing he could think of to get to her house—and each time, either Shino or Gaara would pop up and stop him. It was driving the dog-trainer crazy! Shino and Gaara took turns cutting off Kiba's attempts, unintentionally, but it seemed very effective. Each time he got past the Konoha bug ninja, the little sand ninja would appear and glower death at him, and vice versa. Shino had to pause a few times to marvel at how well their teamwork was getting the job accomplished. If it weren't for the fact that neither of them spoke very much, he and Gaara would probably make an impressive duo. Shino sighed to himself as he saw Kiba duck into an alleyway and take off. Figuring he didn't have much time to think over the possibilities of a bug/sand attack, Shino hurried after his teammate to keep his promise to Hinata.
The Hyuuga heiress herself was completely oblivious to Kiba's desperate attempt at catching her attention. Hinata was in her room making last minute adjustments on her long deep purple yukata. True, she had no date to attend the dance with as of yet, but Gaara's pep talk had given her hope of still catching the clueless Uzumaki Naruto's eye. And besides, she had promised to meet Neji at the dance for a short while. Hinata figured she could meet up with her cousin for a moment, slowly build her confidence, then find the mischievous Naruto and ask him to dance. She only hoped she could do it without fainting, or running away in embarrassment. Hinata took a good look at herself in the full-length mirror hung on her wall, gulping at the nervous anticipation assembling in her chest.
Rock Lee had made sure to get all of his chores done as soon and as quickly as possible. He had scrubbed his tiny house from top to bottom until it practically sparkled, then washed all the dirty dishes that had accumulated over the week, and took the trash out. This way, he would be able to enjoy himself at the dance without worrying over what he would have to do once he got back home. He wanted his mind to be perfectly clear the whole night so he could give his full attention to Sakura. Lee smiled silently to himself as he rummaged through his father's closet for a fancy outfit that might fit him. He settled on a pale blue one, having to dust the garment off and smooth out a multitude of wrinkles before seeing if it actually fit. All Lee really had to do was roll the sleeves up a little and the outfit worked just fine. The taijutsu master couldn't suppress his grin as he evened his hair into a perfectly round shape. Tonight, he thought happily to himself as a blush broke across his face, he would have the privilege of escorting the most beautiful kunoichi to the Leaf Festival. It almost seemed as if his run of bad luck was finally beginning to turn around.
Humming gleefully to herself, Yamanaka Ino tied her pure white yukata into place and stepped outside to enjoy the day for a short while by herself. She and Shikamaru had their meeting place and time, so to kill the hours in-between, Ino decided that all the boys of Konoha should get a good look at just how wonderful she looked in her brand new outfit. A few little festival games, a couple of warm hellos to strangers, and a short pause by the Haruno house to brag about her new yukata would definitely keep her entertained long enough to wait for Shikamaru's meeting time. She had scarcely passed by the neighbor's house when Ino was stopped, face to face with a clearly pissed off Temari of the sand. It was no secret what had so angered the sand kunoichi, and Ino just offered her a smug look of triumph. Temari's eyes narrowed, a hand slowly reaching back for her fan. Ino brought her hands forward to form the seal of her family's perfected Psychic Jutsu. The girls really didn't need words; both knew the cause of this fight, both were determined to win this fight, and both were fully prepared to battle it out right in the middle of the street. All over one lazy, boring, stubborn, cranky ninja.
Back at his room, Shikamaru sneezed underneath his covers, rubbing his nose miserably, "Ahh…that's a bad sign."
And so, all the Ninjas of Konohagakure were preparing for the night of the dance.
But out of all of them, Haruno Sakura was not yet thinking about what she would wear or do tonight. The pink-haired Kunoichi stood just beyond the festival grounds, leaned against a building with her arms loosely folded in front of her, bright green eyes focused sadly on the prominent Uchiha estate. For all her promising and swearing to shove him out of her mind for even one night, Sakura found herself thinking more and more about Sasuke over the last few days. It wasn't just an obsession; it was bordering on addiction. Their last encounter had been less than pleasant, and it had Sakura genuinely concerned. Had she really hurt his feelings with her speech? Had she just made things worse? No one had really seen the Uchiha heir since his battle with Naruto, and it was anyone's guess what he was doing in there, locked in his house away from everyone he knew. Sakura winced to herself, hoping that somehow, she could regain whatever awkward relationship she had had with Sasuke prior to this whole Leaf Festival fiasco. Being yelled at was far better than being ignored.
A voice behind the pink-haired Haruno startled her from her thoughts, "Ahh. It's the rarest blossom that blooms most beautifully, isn't it?"
"H-huh?" Sakura pushed herself away from the building and turned, catching sight of Kakashi reading his perverted book just behind her, "Sensei? What does that mean?"
Kakashi's single eye closed softly, "A smile seen everyday is fine, but a smile seen once every so often is precious. Isn't it, Sakura?" He giggled at the continued misunderstanding his words were giving his student. Sakura understood the phrases simply enough, just not why Kakashi was saying them, or why he expected her to understand. The Jounin clapped his book shut and smiled at her under his mask, "Anyway, what brings you all the way over here, eh? Shouldn't you be getting ready for your date with Lee?"
Sakura pushed a few stray strands of rose-petal pink hair behind her ear, again glancing away at the Uchiha house, "Well…all I have to do is get changed. That won't take more than a few minutes. So…I have some free time to…"
"To worry yourself sick, eh?" Kakashi reached a hand out and patted her head, "Don't. I'm sure that once the festival ends, we'll have our old, crabby Sasuke back." At least, he certainly hoped so. Kakashi certainly didn't want to have to storm into that house and drag Sasuke out by force.
Sakura nodded, a light smile coming across her face, "Okay." Kakashi smiled back, removing his hand as he turned to walk away, flipping his book open again. Sakura watched him, eyebrows furrowing a moment as she thought about the peculiar phrase he had given her, "Kakashi-sensei! Wait a minute!"
"Yes?" He twisted his head around; his eye squinted shut with a wide grin.
"What…what did you mean, 'the rarest blossom that blooms'…I don't understand."
"Ohhh, I suspect you will…soon enough…" the enigmatic Jounin went back to reading his book, a hand waving a goodbye to his student, "I will see you tonight then, Sakura. Take care."
"Right." She watched her teacher shuffle away, still unsure of what he was trying to get at. Her eyes went back to Sasuke's house for an instant, then to Kakashi, then down to stare at the ground underneath her. She figured it had to be some corny line he picked out of that disgusting book he was always lugging around. It had to be. There was no other explination, except for…
Her eyes went once more to the Uchiha estate. Sakura shook her head out, trying to pry her mind away from Sasuke for a while so she could focus on the dance. The dance that Lee was taking her to, and the dance where she was going to enjoy herself all night long without a further thought about Uchiha Sasuke. Sakura took in a deep breath and headed back home to get herself ready. Having a good time at the dance meant not thinking about Sasuke, and standing around to stare at his house was not helping.
Uzumaki Naruto turned and twisted, making sure he looked all right from every angle possible. He scrunched his face as he passed judgment on the image staring back at him from his full-length mirror. He had found an old dark green outfit crammed into the back of his closet, left carelessly on the floor next to his old pair of goggles. Naruto would have preferred something orange, and even played with the idea of just throwing his usual jacket over the whole thing. But Dark green was bad enough with his bright blonde hair without adding another sharp color into the mix. Naruto twisted again, trying to stretch the fabric of the outfit so that it didn't seem as horribly wrinkled as it actually was.
"Ahh, man…" the fox-boy grimaced as he eyed the crumpled fabric, "This is impossible. Maybe no one will notice since it'll be all dark and stuff…" The outfit in and of itself was not what Naruto was so cranky about, although, he kept thinking over and over how badly he wished it were orange. The main problem was his noticeable lack of a date. Not that he ever had one all the years before, or that he had even understood what everyone was talking about the first time he heard that he should take someone to the dance, but still. Iruka had made a very good point, he could have just asked Hinata all those times over the past week.
"That would have been a blast!" Naruto thought to himself, smirking as he managed to smooth over a sleeve, "I could'a shown Hinata all kinds of ways to cheat at those festival games, and then we could've thrown bags of leaves at Sasuke's house!" The mischievous little Gennin allowed himself to chuckle as the images of those thoughts played through his mind.
His smirk quickly diminished as he noticed that the fabric of his outfit wouldn't stay smoothed over for more than a few token seconds, "Nahhhhh. Hinata'd probably never do those kinds of things. Besides, I'll bet that dope Kiba asked her weeks ago."
Naruto finally gave up on his outfit. It was fine enough for now—not like he'd actually get to dance, anyway. He shrugged the thoughts of bringing someone far from his mind, grinning that distinctly fox-like grin that so often came across his face before he started trouble.
"Alright! Time for the dance!!!"
And so began the Leaf Festival Dance.
Author's Closing Rant- ::snicker:: Wow, that's still pretty short! Yes, yes, it's meant to glaze over everyone except for Sakura and Naruto. Geez, I went on for so long without dialog, I was going to die! But it came out good. This chapter came out exactly as I wanted it to…but…short. O.o;
Next Chapter: THE DANCE!! Whoooo!! n.n Finally! You'll all have to wait and see how things turn out! But don't worry—there's still quite a few chapters left before I finish this fiction.
And you just know that this evil little fox is going to torture people some more! ::Smirk::
As always, Read and Review! Thanks guys!